LABOUR PAINS: Tension In The Red Ranks Reaches Boiling Point over Brexit

BOTH the main parties are literally falling apart at the seams when it comes to Brexit. Both promised to respect the wishes of the electorate and deliver on the referendum result and both are betraying that promise.

Last week was dominated by the gaping gaps in the Tories ranks but this week could well be dominated by the bitter civil war tearing Labour apart.

It has reached the point where the Reds are openly trading blows in the pages of the press and on political tv programs. On the BBC’s Sunday Politics show yesterday, Chris Leslie, Labour MP for Nottingham East, blasted his colleague, Caroline Flint, MP for Don Valley and former Government and Shadow Minister, for “sounding like Jacob Rees-Mogg (as if that is a bad thing).

Ms Flint hit straight back straight away saying “when you’re losing the argument you resort to desperate accusations”. She accused Labour Remoaners, quite correctly, of using language that is “seeking to undermine” the outcome of the Brexit referendum.

“The pretence that everyone in the Labour party is in the same place on this, and therefore it is winnable, is a pretence and it really doesn’t help.”

However, the insults were not being traded just across the opposition benches. Constant Remoaner Kenneth Clarke accused Tory Brexiteers of ‘acting like Trump’ (again, as if that is a bad thing). Mr Clarke claimed that David Davis and Boris Johnson had behaved “disgracefully” in holding Theresa May’s feet to the fire over the Customs Union ‘backstop’.

Divisions in both the main parties make predicting how the decisive Brexit votes on Tuesday and Wednesday will pan out virtually impossible. Over the two days, the Commons will be debating and voting on the 15 amendments to the Brexit Bill passed by the House Of Lords